The 100th anniversary of Titanic’s fateful voyage arrives laden with new photos, new articles and, of course, new theories regarding what caused her sundering. Over the past century, researchers, authors and filmmakers have blamed the incident on everyone from White Star management and Belfast’s Harland and Wolff shipyard to Captain E. J. Smith and helmsman Robert Hitchins.
In this article, I examine the latest and arguably most novel theory: The moon did it.
The Large Hadron Collider isn’t going to spawn one, and our own sun will never become one, but it’s fun to think about what might happen if a black hole lurked its way into our cosmic neighborhood. It’s the cosmological equivalent of a ghost story, pitting our bite-sized planet against the reality-bending might of the ultimate bogeyman.
So, what would happen? Let’s just say that, if you’ve ever wondered how taffy feels, you’re about to gain some insight. Still, you might be surprised at some of the crazy ways the scenario plays out—and at the mind-blowing experiences you would have if you could survive the trip.
Who doesn’t love a story about the little guy who makes it big, or the underdog that overcomes? Take these five mighty mites. What they lack in geographical size they make up for in strong economies and supersized space aspirations. As the new space race heats up, and as the airless reaches cease to be the sole province of superpowers, who knows how far their ambitions will carry them?
Think you know destructive storms? I’m talking about Old Testament, wrath-of-God type destruction, storms that kill people by the millions and require years and billions of dollars to recover from.
In this article, I count down the Top 10 most devastating engines of nature in terms of the lives they claimed, their financial toll, and their lasting impacts on the cities and towns they razed.
Why is the sky blue? Everyone supposedly knows, but just about everybody gets it partially wrong. Don’t feel bad, though; the answer has so many parts, it took philosophers and scientists from Aristotle to Maxwell to answer it.
Besides, it’s a bit of a trick question …